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In an interview for Alternative Press magazine, Smokeasac recounts the story behind the creation of the song and the various modifications that were made posthumously.

Asked about, “Why this beat?”

It fits his life. I felt like the beat and the guitars, and everything described him throught sound. So when I gave it to him, I already know it was going to be something special.

Questioned about the meaning of lyrics:

It was a really though time in L.A. I think I was losing my mind a little bit. As happy as I was to be working on the album, things were getting hectic in L.A. Peep was blowing up. It seemed like everyone wanted to be part of his life. Things were getting really crazy. We’re trying to bang out on the album while 15 people are sleeping in his house, somehow in, like, comers and closets.
I couldn’t really deal with all the people and the crazy energy that was at his house. It was a madhouse for a while. And that’s when I recorded “Runaway.” It was about everyone that was just in his house, like, 30 minutes ago, and he was like, “Take me away from here/everybody so fake/everybody so fake I swear.”

He wasn’t confrontational and wasn’t one to adress or even talk about an uncomfortable situation. “He’d literally just let it be. He was suffering throught it. I could tell him he was anxious about it, and he would never tell anyone to leave or anything like that unless we were recording. Then I’d be a bit of a dick. I’d be like, "Everyone has to leave. We’re recording.”
To hear him do that song was just like, “Alright, he’s confirming it through this song, the way he’s feeling about everything.” I was on the same page with him.

Yes Liza (Peep’s mother) who directed the video wrote this:

LIZA’S DIRECTOR’S NOTES:

I’m so proud to have been given the opportunity to collaborate with Steven Mertens on the video for Runaway. It has allowed me to make something beautiful for my son – in his honor. Early in the process, many of us agreed that Runaway would be a great song to release as a single for COWYS 2. It is a powerful song that tells the story of how Gus–aka Lil Peep–had decided to leave his apartment in LA, but he didn’t want to come home to live in Long Beach, either. So, he had gone to stay in London. That was a productive and happy time for him–working with friends like Smokeasac and ILoveMakonnen.

This video tells that part of Gus’s story. The story is told using many of Gus’s drawings, from different periods of his life. After transforming into the wonderful “flaming-haired” character that Gus drew, himself, he flies away from LAX to London–to make music with some of his best friends.

I know you will enjoy watching it. You will see different things each time you watch. His drawings. His tattoos. His friends. The house where he really lived. And his dog, Taz, the “legend.”